thought
provoking words from our teacher...
May
6:
God does not think like
an American- Matthew 13
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here for this lesson in PDF format
You’ve no doubt
heard people say, “The God I worship wouldn’t … [whatever].”
Many Americans have
a very democratic view of God, as though we get to vote for
the characteristics of God we prefer, or that we get to help
formulate the principles by which God governs.
But
the Bible says:
My thoughts
are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
Isaiah 55:8
It is a wise man
or woman who puts their mind to discovering the principles by
which God operates his kingdom, instead of the strategies we
think he would follow if he were us. Many of God’s ways are
mystery, that is, not revealed to us. But he has revealed a
lot, if we pay attention.
Most of us know the
parable of the sower (also called the parable of the seeds,
or the parable of the soils), a story Jesus told about a farmer
who planted in various types of ground soil. After he told that
story, Jesus and his disciples took a break from the crowd,
and the disciples asked him in private about the significance
of the parable. Jesus explained it to them, but before he did,
he said several things about the mysteries of God and about
the operating principles of the Kingdom.
Here’s one. It probably
wasn’t a principle the disciples would have thought up on their
own. And it sure isn’t one that would be popular in contemporary
America.
Whoever has will
be given more, and they will have an abundance.
Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from
them.
- Matthew 13:12
God’s gifts
are not given to level the playing field.
Read it again. Jesus
said that this embedded operating principle is one of the “secrets
of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:11). He repeated it more than once
(see, for example, Matthew 25:29 where the exact same basic
principle is applied in an entirely different context).
Before
anyone applies the words to American social and economic policy,
it is important to note that in Matthew 13, Jesus was teaching
about the mysteries of knowing God. If you have wisdom and want
more, you’ll get it. If you know God and want to know him better,
you will come to know him in a way that far exceeds your expectations.
If you don’t know much about matters of the Kingdom, and don’t
really make it a priority to learn more, what you do know will
atrophy away.
That’s not what we
modern westerners might propose, but it is a fundamental principle
of the Kingdom, applicable in many areas of life.
In Matthew 13, Jesus
revealed several other “secrets” of the kingdom, powerful clues
to the mystery of God’s ways. We’ll explore a couple more of
them in class. It’s not hard to figure out why he let the disciples—and
us—in on the key to these particular mysteries. In every case,
the clue to the mystery of God’s ways has a direct application
to how we live … or could live if we know the secret.
I’ll see you on Sunday.
Tom
For the next seven
or eight weeks, our class will focus on words of Jesus that
cause us to think more deeply about God. We’ll use the Indeed
daily devotional magazine as our pointer. The issue that began
May 1st is entirely based on words of Jesus, with one selection
for every weekday through the end of June. Each week we will
go in depth on one of that week’s quotes from Jesus. We have
copies of Indeed for you to pick up. A great many of
you missed class last Sunday, so I hope you will make an extra
effort to be with us this week.
Click
here for previous lesson previews
